It’s been a minute or five since I’ve posted. Just over a week ago was my second wedding anniversary and my husband and I celebrated in the enjoyable city of Cincinnati. Needless to say, blogging was set aside as we took the time to create memories to hold on to for a lifetime. I hope to add a post about it though I didn’t take many photos…a good sign really when evaluating the focus of the weekend 🙂 So what better way to jump back to blogging than with a refreshing salad recipe for everyone! Salads are a great summertime dish, but for fellow salad lovers like me we want them year round! Rather than making my usual side topped with veggies and tossed in a variation of vinaigrette, I decided to cater to the season and mix up a Fall inspired salad with a flavorful blend of fruit, cheese and nuts. These Fall style salads are great on the random days of sunshine and warmer temperatures still sneaking into our weekly forecasts. We’ve been able to enjoy open windows and fresh air blowing through the house a handful of times lately, something we’ll dream about doing a couple months from now as the fresh blowing air turns to gusting chills! You can’t deny the beauty of seasons though…or the beautiful display in this salad!

If you want to keep your salad extra healthy, my advice is to go easy on the cranberries (can be a good amount of sugar) and the the feta cheese (contains some unwanted fats). This is an easy task with delicious apples, crunchy walnuts and the perfect dressing. You could easily include almonds as well for added benefits and replace dried cranberries with grapes. Thoughts? Again, salads are wonderfully notorious for their ability to be customized! Share your favorite variation of this Fall salad in the comments below! And if you live in a place with cold winters like us, soak up all the sun and cool breezes you can 🙂 Enjoy!

Apple Cranberry Walnut Salad

*recipe to be taken lightly as I highly suggest adding ingredient amounts to your liking with this one!

Ingredients:

• 6 cups organic salad (any mixed greens will do)
• 1 organic red apple
• 1 organic green apple
• 1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
• ⅓ cup crumbled feta cheese
• ⅓ cup dried cranberries

Suggested Dressing:

• 1 cup organic, no sugar added apple juice
• 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons pure honey
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• ¼ cup oil

Instructions:

1. Rinse and chop or slice apples. Add lettuce to a large bowl, top with apples, walnuts, feta and cranberries and lightly mix together.
2. Whisk all dressing ingredients together or grab your favorite bottle of salad dressing and toss with salad just before serving.

 

As always, thanks for reading!!